Apparel Decoration & Print

12 trades. Same grounded system, tuned to the realities of each one.

12 kinds of apparel decoration & print businesses

Pick yours - every one has its own numbers, leaks, and 90-day plan

Screen Printing Embroidery Direct-to-Garment (DTG)Direct-to-Film (DTF)Sublimation Printing Heat Transfer / Vinyl (HTV)Custom T-Shirt Shop Promotional Products Uniform & Team Apparel Patch Making Cap / Hat Decoration Engraving & Laser

How the money works

Apparel Decoration & Print runs on 2 different business models

Two shops in the same industry can need opposite advice, because they sell different things. Find the model you actually run on.

Production and decoration runs

You sell one order of many identical units

Price per unit falls with quantity, but your cost per order does not - art, setup, screens, plates, and packing happen once no matter the count. Small custom orders quoted off a per-unit price chart lose money silently. Rush work and art revisions are where the schedule and the margin both die.

Your ceiling: Press or machine hours plus the setup time between jobs.
Biggest leak: No order minimum — Every order consumes art, setup, and packing. A minimum is not rude, it is arithmetic.

11 business types

Quoted job shop work

You sell one quoted job against a machine hour

You sell machine time and expertise, and you quote it before you know exactly what it will take. Setup time is the killer on short runs, and a shop that quotes run time without honest setup loses money on every small order. One customer at 40 percent of revenue is not a relationship, it is a risk.

Your ceiling: Machine hours, and the setup hours that never make a part.
Biggest leak: Setup buried in run time — Short runs are all setup. Quote setup as its own line and set a minimum order value.

1 business type

Engraving & Laser